Fall 2012 2nd Edition

Greetings from VP Lela Morgan ...

As the fall semester winds down and we get ready to celebrate the upcoming holidays with our families and friends, I want to take this opportunity to thank all of you for your dedication to the college and, especially, to your students.

It has been an eventful fall weather-wise, with both superstorm Sandy and our first Nor’easter snowfall of the season. Whenever possible, I encourage you to use available technology to keep in touch with your students. Besides email, you can use Blackboard to post lessons and announcements as well as to collect and return work electronically. If you are not already using Blackboard, your program director or department chair can help you learn to use this valuable resource.

Also, because not all students have regular access to a computer or may not be able to get online if there are power outages, some faculty members have been collecting students’ cell numbers to reach them by phone or text message.

In just a few short weeks, we’ll be finishing classes and preparing for final exams. I want to remind you about the importance of submitting your final grades no later than noon on Dec. 24. You can read more about why the timely submission of grades is imperative and about some changes to make submitting grades easier under Important Notes for Faculty in this edition.

I wish you an enjoyable remainder of the semester helping our students achieve their goals.

Office of Enrollment Services

What's New in Admissions?

Apply online now

Thinking about starting your CCRI education soon? Now there's an easy way for you to start the admissions process and save money. Applicants who submit their application online will have their $20 application fee waived. It's simple, easy and a great way for you to begin the journey of changing your life and achieving your dreams at the Community College of Rhode Island. For more information visit the "Learn How to Apply" page.

Information Sessions

Admissions Information Sessions are a great way for new and current (nondegree) students to explore what we have to offer. This is a smart way to begin the admissions process at CCRI. For more information, visit the Information Sessions registration page.

Campus Tours

The Student Ambassador campus tour schedule has resumed for Fall 2012. Students can visit our four campus locations in Lincoln, Providence, Warwick and Newport County. For more information, visit the Campus Tours schedule page.

The impact on students when Verification of Enrollment (VOE and/or final grades are submitted after the deadline:

Student veterans cannot be certified until all of their grades are submitted. This results in a delay of their reimbursement of veteran’s benefits from the federal government.

Missing grades affect students’ Satisfactory Academic Progress (SAP). Missing grades will only have a negative impact on SAP. Students’ financial aid eligibility may be affected and can cause them to file unnecessary appeals and take away time from Advising and Counseling.

CCRI NEBHE Policy

Tuition at CCRI

Information Technology

CCRI CIO Steve Vieira provides an update about our IT department

The CIO newsletter is undergoing a significant change in the format. Instead of providing lots of content, now IT simply will include links in a table of contents fashion with a brief discussion on what is contained in the article. That way, readers can focus on those articles of interest, making the newsletter much more accessible. Hope you enjoy the new delivery, and I hope you will take the time to provide some feedback on the articles and presentation. Read more »

Distance Learning

If you are teaching a DL section (600 or 700) in the Spring semester and you are not on the DL mailing list or you do not have access to the DL Faculty Forum in Blackboard, please email Maggie Burke to be added to the list and the forum. The forum contains helpful documents for DL faculty (sample startup letter, syllabus template, course evaluation and semester checklist, among others). If you're on the mailing list, Maggie will send you email reminders throughout the semester to help you with DL policy and keep your course running smoothly.

DL Faculty Pedagogy Course to be Offered Again

The five-week, fully online distance learning pedagogy course will be offered again during the winter intersession. Limited space is available with preference given to new DL faculty who are scheduled to offer a DL course in the spring semester. Experienced DL faculty are welcome! All participants work with one another in this collaborative learning environment. In the course you will build a Blackboard course with activities, assessments and plans for interaction and course management. You will be awarded CEUs and a certificate upon completion. For additional information please contact Maggie Burke.

Teaching Online Listserv

You are invited to join the URI/RIC/CCRI distance learning pedagogy Listserv. Faculty and staff from the three colleges are sharing and discussing ideas, articles and resources. If you are unfamiliar with distance learning, this is a great place to find out how it works. You can quietly "lurk" and read your colleagues' discussions, or post your own questions, comments or articles about online learning. Please consider joining this Listserv.

Important Notes for Faculty

Fall 2012 Final Grades: DUE by noon on Monday, Dec. 24.

It is imperative faculty adhere to final grade submission deadlines so that student financial aid is not adversely affected. To facilitate a smoother grade submission process, a few changes have been made to the system:

A 'Splash Screen' will notify you that a 'Last Date of Attendance' is required to be entered if you are assigning the following nonstandard grades: F, WP, WF, I.

The correct format for entering 'Last Date of Attendance' is as follows: MM/DD/YYYY.

The 'IC' grade can only be assigned for a math lab course.

At the bottom of the screen you will be required to click on a button indicating you have read and understand the policies listed. If you neglect to click this, you will not be able to proceed.

If you do not enter the' Last Date of Attendance' in the correct format, you will not be able to proceed.

If you have incorrectly entered any grade or not entered 'Last Date of Attendance' correctly, and click the SUBMIT button, a box will pop up indicating errors. Refer to the top of the page for a listing of errors.

You MUST HIT the SUBMIT button to submit the grades. If you do not hit SUBMIT, the grades will not be entered.

Tip 1: Enter all standard (A, A-, B+, B, B-, C+, C, D ) grades first and hit SUBMIT. Then go back in (you will see the standard grades you had entered previously) and enter the nonstandard grades (F, WP, WF, I) along with the 'Last Date of Attendance.' Hit SUBMIT again.

Tip 2: 'Last Date of Attendance': If a month has only 30 days, you cannot enter 31 as the day. The system will not recognize this and will not accept the grade.

IT Service Disruption

Electrical work will be performed in the data center at the Knight Campus from 7 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Sunday, Dec. 2. During this time, all IT systems will be unavailable to students, faculty and staff.

Systems affected will include:

College's Newest Police Chief

Dale Wetherell, newest chief of the Community College of Rhode Island Police Department, couldn’t walk away from being a police officer. Wetherell spent 30 years on the Rehoboth, Mass., Police Department, retiring as chief in 2003.

"When I first retired from law enforcement I wanted to be done with it totally, but that was all right for about six months," Wetherell said. Read more »

New Community Policing Effort Under Way This Fall on All Four Campuses

Faculty Athletic Representatives Sought

A Faculty Athletic Representative ("FAR") is a member of the faculty at an NJCAA-member institution. He or she has been designated by the CCRI Athletic Department to serve as a liaison between the team, the athletic department and the institution. Each institution determines the role of the FAR at that particular university or college.

According to the Faculty Athletics Representatives Association's Guiding Principles, the role of the FAR is: "... to ensure that the academic institution establishes and maintains the appropriate balance between academics and intercollegiate athletics." Click here to see all of FARA's Guiding Principles.

Functions of the Faculty Representative

Assist student-athletes and coaches in linking with college programs, resources and support activities.

Provide job or graduate school recommendations.

Communicate to the college community the performance of individual student-athletes and teams.

Support coaches in recruiting efforts if time permits.

Attend the annual Spring Athletic Recognition Ceremony

If you are interested in participating, please contact Kevin Salisbury (ksalisbury@ccri.edu). Kevin will meet with you to provide an orientation and answer questions. The goal is to provide valuable connections and experiences for our student-athletes and faculty.

Revised Peer Evaluation Process

During the past academic year, the Faculty Evaluation Review Committee adopted a "common elements" peer evaluation instrument at the request of the NEASC team that visited the college in 2009. The committee developed an instrument that will foster healthy dialog between faculty with a focus on course materials-syllabus, learning outcomes, scoring rubrics and a review of examples of student work. The Peer Evaluation Process provides faculty members with an opportunity for an open exchange of and critical inquiry into pedagogy and is intended to strengthen and reinforce sound teaching practice. In other words, Peer Evaluation should avoid simple summative language and promote excellent teaching through conversation between colleagues. Read more »

NEASC News

CCRI is scheduled for its 10-year accreditation visit in March 2014. The NEASC executive team began preparations for the self study in April 2011.

A NEASC survey link was distributed to all CCRI faculty and staff this fall. The survey was completed by 180 participants. Data from this survey will be used to guide Standards in their quest to attain an optimal review of their key priorities and goals.

Standards co-chairs have begun writing the narrative of the report, with first drafts due to VP Morgan in early December.

CITLA

Center for Innovative Teaching, Learning and Assessment

Upcoming Workshop

CITLA's Winter Workshop is scheduled for the second week of January. The theme of our workshop will be critical thinking.

Please visit: www.ccri.edu/citla for more information on dates and times and to access the registration link to sign up.

ADA Webinar Series: We are in the process of scheduling exclusive replays in Newport and Providence followed by discussions with CCRI’s Disabilities Services Staff.

Come by to browse CITLA’s book collection just outside the CITLA Center (Room 4560 in the Knight Campus Library) or browse the collection virtually by going to www.ccri.edu/library, going to the center of the page under "Find Books," clicking on "Encore Search" and typing in "CITLA" as the keyword.

CITLA’s Spring Symposium is scheduled for May 23, 2013. Amy Baldwin, author of numerous articles and two monographs: "The Community College Experience and The Community College Experience: The First Generation" (forthcoming), has taught student success, composition, and literature at Pulaski Technical College in Little Rock, Ark., since 1996. Baldwin co-founded the National Student Success Institute at Florida State College in Jacksonville and at the College of Southern Nevada to support community college professional development. In 2006, she won the TYCA-SW Teaching Excellence Award. We look forward to this opportunity to exchange insights and resources for teaching the first- year student.

CITLA Teaching Tip:

Five Tips to Reduce Cheating

Clearly articulate your expectations for the class and each individual assignment. Can students work with others on their homework assignments, for example? Can they use old exams, lab reports, etc. as aids in the course?

Explicitly link assignments to learning objectives. Students often cheat on assignments that they see as meaningless or "busy-work." If they understand the point of the assignment, especially how it will help them learn the material, they are more likely to push through it on their own rather than copy from someone else.

Reduce temptations to cheat. We cannot control student behavior, but we can at least show them that we care about the integrity of our classes by doing little things. For example, space students out during exams; provide multiple versions of the same test; require students to leave all nonessential materials at the front of the room; and have the WiFi turned off in the test room.

Talk to students about the relation of academic integrity to professional ethics and their future chosen career. Students are more likely to uphold integrity in academic assignments if they see it as holding more value than just being "another institutional rule."

Report all cheating when you see it rather than ignore it or handle it on your own. A professor can become known as someone who does not tolerate cheating or look the other way, and then the cheaters will not choose her class! Also, many professors mistakenly assume that they can reduce cheating on their own, but it takes the entire campus. If instructors do not report cheating, that same student may be cheating in other courses and no one may ever know!

Items of Interest

10 Commandments of Lecturing

I. Thou shalt connect new lectures to previous ones.

It’s always a good idea to start a new lecture with a nod to the one before. A small reminder re-engages student minds, sets the tone for new connections, and allows you to build upon foundations built earlier.

In a related vein, give a nod to what students should have read in their texts. (But don’t rehash it, or they’ll rightly wonder why they should bother coming to class.) Read more »

The Liberal Arts ARE Workforce Development

The Chronicle of Higher Education, July 6, 2011

Two-year colleges occupy a unique position in the national debate over the value of the liberal arts. But it's a position that is generally overlooked, if not ignored altogether. Read more »

Adjuncts Build Strength in Numbers

The Chronicle of Higher Education, Nov. 5, 2012

Community colleges have traditionally relied heavily on nontenure-track faculty, with 85 percent of their instructors in 2010 not eligible for tenure, according to the most recent federal data available. But the trend has been increasingly evident at four-year institutions, where nearly 64 percent of the instructional faculty isn't eligible for tenure. Read more »

Threat Assessment Training

In an effort to proactively reach out to members of our college community and to address inappropriate behavior and events before they escalate, the Community College of Rhode Island has created a Threat Assessment Committee. The Committee is charged with establishing policies and procedures that encourage early action and intervention when necessary to maintain a high-quality and safe learning environment. Read more »

Adjunct Information

The AFA requests the presence of all adjuncts interested in learning more about the activities of the organization, as well as those who would like to get involved.

Adjunct Orientation Module

Adjunct faculty are recognized as playing a critically important role in providing quality education for CCRI students. We are providing an online resource to make your transition to CCRI a smooth and enjoyable experience while providing you with important information and support.